Bring: TWITs should bring a bottle of sparkling wine
- made in the champagne method or methode champenoise,
- from any country, any region, in the world,
- within the specified price range (Up to $20/bottle for Singles, between $20 - $40/bottle for Couples)
Blanc Elephant Gift Exchange: Bring a homemade or small wrapped gift $5-10 (not expensive), for the gift exchange.
Tasting Notes:
Welcome Wine: NV Gruet Blanc de Blanc, New Mexico - $15.99 @ Minx
1) NV Tattinger Brut Reserve Champagne, Reimes - $39 @ CostCo
12% alcohol,
(Reimes is pronounced Rhahmce, like it rhymes with France)
tastes French, very nice, crisp, dry, very dry, green, grapefruit, tart, slight sweetness, greenish tinge to the color
2) NV Gruet Blanc de Noir, New Mexico - $15.99 @ Minx
12% alcohol, Pinot Noir
white grape juice, sweeter, pleasant sweetness, palatable, golden color, more effervescent, tart, leaves me thirsty, chalky, minerality, bitterness at the end.
3) NV Laherte Freres Grand Brut 'Ultradition' Champagne - $49.99 @ Le Caveau
60% Pinot Meunier (rare to have so much), 30% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Noir
more clear gold color, acidity, sharper, peaches & apricot, tart, floral, elegant, yeasty, savory, Val guesses cremant, champagne, Gwen guesses Prosecco,
"92 points The new release of Ultradition is absolutely lovely, offering up a complex nose of lemon, apple, bread dough, stony minerality, citrus zest, and a top note of white flowers (from the Pino Meunier?), On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with lovely mid-palate depth, elegant mousse and superb length and grip on the crisp and focused finish. This is one high class bottle of non-vintage Brut! 2013-2025. - John Gilman, A View From the Cellar #46, Jul/Aug 2013."
4) 2012 Peter Jakob Kuhn, Spatburgunder Rose Sekt Brut - $35-39 @ Le Caveau
13% alcohol, German Rose from Rheingau
pinky/orange hue, funky nose, Kathy guesses Blanc de Noir, apple juice, Matt says "awful", peachy, Rh says cider-ish, obscure, "better as a spritzer", we also tried this wine mixed with Anasazi Vineyards Choke Cherry wine.
5) 2010 Ironhorse Wedding Cuvee - $38 @ Toco Giant
13.5% alcohol, 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, aged 3 years
Rose-ish, softer, effervescent, berry, yeasty nose, not so elegant, dry, tart, honey, tight on the palate, not as satisfying, very forward, flabby/flat, might be a cava, sparkling wine begs for food
6) NV Mumm Napa Brut Rose - $15.99 @ Candler Park Market
12.5% alcohol
sparkly, rose, dry, very mainstream, very drinkable, "what you think of when you think of champagne but fruitier", this is a burpy wine!, french wine making technique, bing cherry, dark plums
7) NV Roederer Estate Brut, Anderson Valley California - $22.99 @ World Market
12% alcohol
yeasty honey nose, CA wine, asparagus pee, bready, tastes like Californian, toasted nuts, smells good, this is awesome, tastes like asparagus pee, I could drink all day, Rh guessed French
8) NV Sommariva Prosecco di Conegliano -Valdobbiadene, Superiore, DOCG, Brut - $20-29 @ Dunwoody Kroger
11.5% alcohol
clear color, perfumey, pear, swedish au pair (joke), totally different nose, light green, Marilyn guesses 2013 ?
